WASHINGTON — Michael Colburn was directing the Marine Corps' chamber orchestra at a White House event during the Clinton administration when someone tapped his elbow.

Thinking it was a White House aide, Colburn turned around as he kept conducting and found himself face-to-face with the president.

"And he said, 'Oh, this is one of my favorite pieces of music,'" Colburn remembers. "'This is the English Folk Song Suite and this movement is 'Seventeen Come Sunday' and the next one is 'My Bonny Boy.' In the band version, the oboe has the solo but, in the orchestra version, is it the violin?'"

The newly minted conductor tried to answer the detailed questions from the leader of the free world while continuing to direct the band.

When he thought about it later, Colburn was not only impressed with Clinton's musical intellect, but realized he'd gotten a lesson in the importance of "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band, which he would end up leading for a decade.

"When we're there at the White House, we're essentially musical wallpaper. We're providing atmosphere," Colburn said. "But it's easy to start thinking that maybe people aren't listening all that closely to what we're doing. And to find out that not only are people listening, but one of those people was the president of the United States, that was a good reminder that we need to make sure that we're always bringing our 'A' game to every performance."

Colburn, who retired as a marine colonel and director of the band July 12, will bring that lesson and more to Indianapolis when he takes over as Butler University's director of bands Aug. 20.

Band has rich history

Calling the Marine Band "musical wallpaper" is a modest description for the nation's oldest, continuously active professional musical organization. Every president except George Washington has enjoyed its music. Thomas Jefferson is credited with calling it "the president's own."

The band accompanied Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg. It performs at presidential inaugurations and funerals, state dinners, and White House weddings. Guest artists who have performed with the band range from Yo-Yo Ma to Beyonce.

Ronald Reagan said the band has witnessed more American history than any other musical ensemble.

Colburn's move is the first time a former director of the band has become a college professor, which should boost the prestige of the school's music program.

"He's one of the most well known conductors of band music in the world," said Daniel Bolin, a professor of music at Butler and former chair of the school of music who was instrumental in hiring Colburn. "He's known everywhere because when you're the director of the U.S. Marine Band, that is the most famous band that exists."

Colburn, 49, said his past post was tailor-made for him, as "a student of history just as much as I am a student of music." He got butterflies every time he walked into the White House.

His new job will satisfy another passion: education.

Roots are in education

(Photo: Butler University)

Colburn's mother was an elementary school teacher and his dad was a high school band director in Vermont.

One of Colburn's earliest memories was crawling underneath an older brother's sousaphone to try to make a sound on the mouthpiece.

When it was Colburn's turn to choose an instrument, his father suggested that the smaller euphonium might be a better starter instrument for the 10-year-old.

"I often thought he had an ulterior motive because he never had enough euphonium players," Colburn said.

But Colburn fell in love with the way the instrument sounded and the fact that it was uncommon.

Colburn met his first professional euphonium player at a summer band camp where one of the faculty members was the top euphonium player in the Marine Band.

"That was really the first time the light bulb went off: I could do this as a profession," he said.

When he reached college, Colburn wrote to all the euphonium players in the military bands for recommendations on whom to study with.

Daniel Perantoni, a tuba and euphonium teacher then at Arizona State who is now at Indiana University, was recommended by everyone.

Colburn called Perantoni a "life-changing kind of teacher" and Perantoni returns the compliment.

"I had some fantastic students and Mike was at the top of my list," Perantoni said. "He worked extremely hard and obviously had talent, too."

From player to conductor

Although Colburn was studying to be a professional euphonium player, Perantoni recognized his conducting abilities.

"I just remember saying off the cuff, 'You know, I'd keep up the conducting. Who knows? You might be the next John Philip Sousa,'" Perantoni said of the most famous director of the Marine Band. "And, my God, it happened."

Perantoni prepared Colburn for an audition with the band as if he were training for the Olympics. No alcohol. No caffeine. Six hours of practice a day with lots of sight reading and solo preparations.

Colburn was one of 38 people who auditioned for two openings. (Today, auditions can attract from 75 to 125 people for one slot.)

Colburn came in third and thought he'd missed out on his dream job. But a few months later he got a call that the band was adding an additional euphonium and it was his if he still wanted it.

Members of the band don't have to go through recruit training and Colburn joined the band in 1987 and became the principal euphonium player in 1990.

Colburn studied on the side for a master's degree in conducting, not because he had designs on the band's top job, but because he thought it could help him get a college post some day.

Tim Foley, the band's then director, had other ideas.

"I had my eye on him really from the time he joined the band because he just displayed such great musical maturity," Foley said. "I was very confident that he had all the qualities that would be required to lead an organization of roughly 145 people, and provide them with musical guidance and inspiration and everything else that goes with along with being the director of the Marine Band."

Foley tapped Colburn as an assistant director in 1996 — the position he was in when Clinton interrupted his conducting — and Colburn succeeded Foley as director in 2004.

Because the director is the official music adviser to the White House, people sometimes mistakenly thought the president would call Colburn to request specific pieces.

Colburn worked most closely with the White House social secretaries for events like state dinners, which sometimes required a bit of diplomacy. For example, for a state dinner for India, a social secretary suggested music from the opera "Lakme." Colburn explained that the opera is about a British imperial officer who falls in love with a Brahmin princess, which perhaps wasn't the part of India's history that the White House should highlight musically.

"There are times when, with the best of intentions, you can inadvertently offend your guests and that's one of the things we work really hard to avoid," Colburn said.

Knowing your presidents

Although Colburn didn't directly consult with presidents on musical selections, he did get to know their tastes.

President Obama, for example, is a jazz fan so Colburn would send a jazz combo to an event that might have been entertained by a string quartet in a different administration.

And he helped Bush make Marine Band history by being the first president to take a turn conducting the group.

When Colburn was promoted to colonel by Bush during an Oval Office ceremony in 2007, he asked Bush about his recent experience conducting an orchestra at the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Colburn said it seemed more appropriate that "if you're ever going to conduct any group, it should be your band."

So about a week before the 2008 White House Correspondents Dinner, Colburn brought the band to the East Room for a quick lesson.

"He took his jacket off, rolled up his sleeves and went to work," Colburn said. "We gave him some pointers. He doesn't really have any musical background, but he had a very strong musical instinct. . . a good sense of natural rhythm."

When Bush led the band playing Sousa's march "The Stars and Stripes Forever" at the dinner, Colburn noticed that Bush had added some gestures to his repertoire.

"You can see how much fun he's having," Colburn said of the event, which has been viewed more than 650,000 times on YouTube. "The band just loved it."

A 10-year term

Although Colburn has likewise "loved every minute" of being in the band, he set a self-imposed term limit of 10 years as director.

"I really feel there's a shelf life on these jobs," Colburn said. "I liken it to being the manager of a baseball team. You don't want to stick around so long that the team stops listening to you."

Colburn heard that Butler band director Robert Grechesky was planning to retire in 2014 and asked Bolin -- whom he'd known for years -- if he thought Butler would be interested in a "washed-up, old military band director."

"I didn't hesitate," Bolin said.

Butler brought Colburn and his wife, Nancy, to campus for a week to see if it was a good fit.

"It was a chance for them to make sure I didn't breath fire," Colburn said. "A lot of times, people think a military band director, a marine colonel, will make kids do pushups if they miss notes or something."

Bolin likened the hiring to recruiting a football or basketball coach.

"You want to get someone who will fit into the program, but someone who will also bring recognition to the program," Bolin said. "This is a really unique opportunity for the music program at Butler. Because it just doesn't happen. I've had many college band directors, and high school band directors say. . . 'What a coup this is for Butler.'"

It's also a loss for the Marine Corps, the commandant, Gen. James F. Amos, said at the "Change of Command Concert" at which Colburn passed a ceremonial baton, first given to Sousa, onto his successor.

During the concert, the musicians stamped their feet in appreciation when it was noted that most of the pieces that Colburn conducted at his final performance were ones he had commissioned.

"With the exception of the Sousa march, none of the pieces that Col. Colburn has conducted . . . could have been performed 10 years ago when he took over. They did not exist in the arrangements that you heard," said band vocalist Sara Dell'Omo. "That's not only a legacy that he's leaving for the Marine Band, but also for concert bands."

Colburn also left his mark on the group through the guest conductors he brought in and by expanding the band's educational outreach efforts.

Quoting from a past evaluation Foley made of Colburn, Amos called Colburn "the most gifted, intelligent and perceptive leader the Marine Band has ever had."

Butler, Amos said, is "ecstatic to have someone of his talent and pedigree joining their staff."

• Established by Congress in 1798, the band is the nation's oldest continuously active professional musical organization. Its primary mission is to provide music for the president.

• The band first performed at the White House in 1801 at a New Year's Day reception given by John Adams. It performed a few months later at Thomas Jefferson's inauguration and has played at every inauguration since.

• Jefferson, considered the "godfather" of the band, is credited with naming it "The President's Own."

• Richard Nixon took a band ensemble to the Soviet Union with him to perform at a dinner he hosted.

• Ronald Reagan said the band had witnessed more American history than any other musical group.

• The band's most famous director is John Philips Sousa, who lead the group from 1880 to 1892. Sousa took the band on tour and made it one of the world's first recording stars.

• Today, Marine Band musicians appear at the White House more than 300 times a year and participate in more than 500 public and official ceremonies throughout Washington. The band tours one region of the country each fall.

Source: U.S. Marine Band

Where Hoosiers can hear the band

"The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band will perform at 3 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Tickets are free and are available on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 10 a.m. on Aug. 8 at the Clowes Memorial Hall box office.